Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition Detailed, Hits PS4 January 28th

Hi everyone, I’m Scot Amos, executive producer at Crystal Dynamics. On January 28th of 2014, we’re bringing the award-winning Tomb Raider experience to PS4 in the form of Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition.

Recreating our franchise for PS4 was a true labor of love for the team. The critically acclaimed story and action adventure remain solidly intact and as riveting as ever. However, we took the opportunity to use the increased horsepower of the hardware to create the Tomb Raider we always envisioned.

We had a core team here at Crystal collaborating with the super talented teams at United Front Games (who worked with Square Enix on Sleeping Dogs) and Nixxes (whom Crystal has partnered with since the Legacy of Kain days). Together, we pulled the game apart and painstakingly rebuilt it with enhanced visual fidelity, realism, and a new immersive richness to the world.

Getting our gameplay up to native 1080p meant increasing all of our texture resolutions by over 4x so the details and nuances can be seen in their full glory. However, it’s subtleties like our subsurface scattering technology — how we manage realistic lighting effects through solid/semi-solid matter — that we’re so proud of, which bring a new glow to Lara’s skin. All of these elements working in conjunction drive a much more realistic world than we’ve ever had.

The entire game world — the perilous island of Yamatai — is alive as well. Foliage bends as Lara pushes through it; trees whip in the wind; even cloth moves courtesy of new, more sophisticated physics modeling. Weather effects lash the island with unprecedented levels of venom, and rain particles are dynamically lit as they slice through piercing searchlights. The in-game cast has also enjoyed an upgrade — characters and enemies alike have been enhanced visually, while in-game destructibility has been given additional refinement to increase the sense that you are leaving a mark on this world.

However, as always, it’s Lara who’s the star of the show. As such, one of our boldest changes was to handcraft an all new, even more realistic head and face model for her, taking advantage of the increased power of PS4. This is our first glimpse of our next-generation Lara. We also drastically improved shader and lighting effects, adding dynamic sweat, mud, and even blood for a new level of visual acuity that reacts on Lara in different situations. Objects on Lara’s person like her climbing axe or arrows now independently react to her movements and sway or jostle with an obsessive eye for detail, further adding that nothing was too small for us to tackle.

Lara’s hair now benefits from TressFX technology — her hair strands are independently simulated and interact with environmental effects, as well as react to her every movement, delivering unprecedented, lifelike motion. This all-new Lara is Crystal’s first steps towards the future. It’s a promising, compelling beginning.

“Promising, compelling beginning” is a good description for our first few weeks in the PS4 era. We’re very proud of what our combined teams at Crystal, United Front Games, and Nixxes have accomplished with Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition. Whether you’re a diehard fan who collects every Tomb Raider title, or just looking for a gripping, cinematic action-adventure to recommend to friends, we’ve got a great game for you. We’re thrilled to launch the game and hear your reactions. It’s been a privilege and a labor of love for us, and we hope you relish playing it as much as we did making it.

Oh, and I really hope you remove the horrible online trophies. That would confirm a buy, even if it’s at $60. If you don’t get rid of the terrible online trophies, I’m going to find it hard to rebuy the game. I’d love to get the platinum, but I’m not grinding terrible multiplayer for it.

The new graphics and dat hair, are tempting, but certainly not for $60 if that ends up being the price.

Aren’t you guys working on the sequel? Tomb Raider was a great game but I wasn’t to fond of the MP. I would consider getting this if there was an extreme improvement from the original. As it is the original looks gorgeous on its own.

Amazing how many people are complaining about this game as if they are forced to buy and and play it again. Guess what, guys? Some of us never played it in the first place, and this is a great chance for us to catch up on it as it was meant to be played. Leave your negativity at the door.

ya um pretty much most people already have this on PS3, why would we buy it again? You’re wasting your time on this, unless you want to offer some kind of trade -in. How ’bout if I could send in my physical copy along with a money order for $10-$15, and you all mail me back the PS4 version?

I don’t mind if it’s 30fps as long as it has 3D, that would justify a 2nd purchase, especially when it’s already got 3D support on PC. If not, it better be cross-buy because I’m NOT paying twice just for 1080p.

I know most people would want 1080p/60fps but at least give us 3D option even if it means 720p/30fps.

Really excited to finally see a full announcement for this. I really enjoyed the original release even for its few flaws and under utilization of one of its supposed bigger sells. Still weirded out by Negative lights.

About TressFX will you guys be using an improved version of this than what was used on PC?

that version looked a little funky and just resulted in me turning it off when I tried it out. If not you may want to let us shut it off too on PS4. Glad CD has decided to get a remaster of this in the wild to give those who missed it a chance to try it and a little more incentive to play.

Can we PLEASE get a harder difficulty level then HARD, please, and add a trophy or some incentive to actually play and complete it. Some more costumes would be great also, I’m very happy for this announcement myself and can’t wait to play this on my PS4. Thanks to the entire team that worked on this, so pumped to get my eyes and hands on this!!

Please remove the online trophies! Or multiplayer altogether while you guys are at it. It really prevented me from wanting to fully complete everything in the PS3 version. I have platinums in every other Crystal Dynamics Tomb Raider game.

I will only buy this version if the online trophies are removed. I loved the campaign and enjoyed getting all the trophies in it but the online part made me mad. Not only do I not care about online, like many other gamers but It also wasted my time with boring grinding. I was too close to getting the plat to quit a few trophies short but this time if it’s the same, then count me out. Please give me a good reason to get this version instead of sticking with the one I have for ps3

I know it’s been confirmed there’s no 3D, I was watching the show, but that doesn’t mean it’s too late to ASK for it. The game isn’t out for almost 2 months and 3D support already exists on PC, so that’s more than enough time to implement it, especially when it’s basically the same game.

If people didn’t care about 3D we wouldn’t be asking constantly for every game that comes up. Trine 2 is the first game with 3D support on PS4 and it looks incredible. Neogaf are jizzing their pants about it because it really does 3D justice. The demand is undeniable and the PS4 is MORE than capable of it so just freaking give us the option, it’s not as if we’re taking anything away from those who don’t want it. 3D is reason alone to repurchase this game even at full price.

LOVED the ps3 version. That being said, like a lot of others here, remove the on-line trophies and I’ll double dip. I really hope you guys listen to the fans and with the sequal you skip on-line multi player all together and just do single player dlc. I’d be willing to pay $30 for a 3 hour single player dlc. Tomb Raider doesn’t need multi play, AT ALL. I felt a lot of pride and joy when I beat the ps3 version. You guys did an awesome job on it. Here’s to hoping to listen to the fans. I believe the multi player is what kept this game from getting a 10.

This game is amazing. Some people just love to complain. 60 FPS? 3D? Crossbuy?59.99?

All of that doesn’t make or break a game. Sad if some of you don’t give it a try for those reasons, especially if you missed out on this game during the year.

This is the Definitive version, so it must be the best version of the game that was already beautiful to begin with and great gameplay to boot.

Let the hate keep rolling in though..”

Dude, between this and the posts you made on the forum recently in a thread I was in, I’m going to assume you’re not very…. bright. The Crossbuy part (or a trade in deal) DOES break a game, when you’re making the EXACT SAME GAME (just prettier) that I’d say 90% of the people ALREADY OWN on PS3. Seriously? Who’s gonna even bother buying it till it’s down to like 15 bucks? Why would we give it a try when we already played it? lol I only skimmed parts of that article but I didn’t see anything about new gameplay, just better graphics and whatnot.

And to Supvic…. we who? I barely see anyone asking for anything in 3D. for any game…

And to ShallowKodiak93 ….. The Xbone 1 can’t even play games in 1080p lol…….

At $60 I simply will not buy this again. don’t get me wrong, I loved the game, but no game is worth $60 twice. This is especially true when the PC version (which I’d imagine is quite comparible to your PS4/XB1 version) can be had for under $15 and sometimes cheaper. Sorry, but I’ll probably skip this and I’d imagine a ton of others will as well. I’m not a sucker like the guy posting above me.